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📰 Press
This playbook requires the following signals:
Monitored Signals
1. Why should I care about new product launches?
Here’s why it’s a big deal:
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2. Examples of companies who launched a new product
3. How to monitor competitors for new product launches
The market has shifted. A key competitor has launched a new product, potentially altering the competitive landscape. This new offering could threaten our market share, introduce capabilities that challenge our existing offerings, or create Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) among our prospects and customers. Our response must be rapid, strategic, and aligned across all departments. How you respond in this fluid environment will define your next chapter. Below, we outline four distinct paths, each designed to harness the psychological and market forces now in play. Each path is a set of immediate, actionable tasks, guiding your team to turn competitor action into your advantage. | ||
4. Playbook Response Options
4.1 Assess and Defend
ⓘ Best for: when a new product launch from a competitor often creates immediate uncertainty. This option is about rapidly understanding the true nature of the threat and protecting your existing customer base and sales pipeline. It's a defensive posture designed to protect your core business from initial FUD. | ||
Goal: Quickly assess the threat, protect the customer base, and stabilize the sales pipeline from initial fear and uncertainty. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This is a data-driven approach. It prioritizes understanding the competitor's actual impact before committing heavy resources, while simultaneously moving swiftly to reassure existing customers and arm customer-facing teams against potential FUD. |
Form a dedicated working group and launch analysis.
A dedicated working group (CI, PMM, Product, Sales) will be convened to own the response and will launch a rapid analysis of the competitor's product, pricing, and messaging.
Create an internal "FUD-buster" FAQ.
Develop a comprehensive internal FAQ document that addresses potential customer and prospect concerns head-on.
Update sales battle cards and objection handlers.
Revise all relevant competitive battle cards with new talking points, landmines to lay, and updated feature comparisons.
Proactively arm customer success.
Provide the Customer Success team with a list of at-risk customers and talking points to proactively reassure them of our value and commitment.
Launch "our strengths" marketing content.
Publish content such as blog posts and case studies that reinforces our unique value proposition in the areas the competitor is now targeting, without mentioning them by name.
4.2 Aggressive Counter-Positioning
ⓘ Best for: when a competitor launches a product with clear flaws, is late to market, or presents a "V1.0" with significant gaps, the opportunity arises to seize control of the narrative. This option is about launching a proactive, offensive campaign that directly highlights the competitor's weaknesses and asserts your established market leadership. | ||
Goal: Seize control of the market narrative and energize the sales team with a proactive, offensive stance against the competitor's new product. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This strategy risks appearing petty if not based on genuine product gaps, and may provoke a strong competitive backlash. However, if executed accurately, it provides an immediate offensive stance that can protect and grow market share. |
Validate exploitable gaps and define the counter-narrative.
Rapidly confirm the top 3-5 weaknesses in the competitor's "V1.0" product and build a core counter-narrative around these weaknesses (e.g., "They solve a piece, we solve the platform").
Create "attack" comparison assets.
Develop a detailed comparison webpage and downloadable PDF that directly contrasts our mature solution against their new, limited offering.
Launch a targeted digital campaign.
Run a paid search and social media campaign targeting keywords related to the competitor's new product and drive traffic to the new comparison assets.
Enable sales with offensive talk tracks and training.
Conduct a formal training session for the sales team on how to use the new assets and proactively seed the counter-narrative in their calls.
Activate PR and influencer relations.
Proactively brief key industry personalities and friendly media contacts on our perspective of the launch and our differentiated value.
4.3 Strategic Containment and Focus
ⓘ Best for: Not every new product launch is a direct threat. Sometimes, a competitor's move targets a niche, or represents a distraction from your core priorities. This option focuses on denying the competitor credibility and maintaining your team's focus on your strategic roadmap, conserving resources for genuine threats. | ||
Goal: Conserve resources and maintain team focus on core priorities by strategically containing and downplaying the competitor's new product. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This approach is prudent when the new product appears to be for a niche market. It minimizes wasted effort on non-threats, keeps the team aligned with internal goals, and avoids validating the competitor's launch through an overreaction. |
Quick-qualify the threat.
The CI Lead will confirm if the competitor's new product targets our core Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or key market segments.
Issue an internal "maintain focus" directive.
Send a company-wide communication explaining the competitor's move and reinforcing the strategic decision to remain focused on our current priorities.
Prepare "acknowledge and pivot" talking points.
Create a simple, one-page guide with approved talking points for Sales and CS to use if a prospect mentions the new product, allowing them to acknowledge it and quickly pivot the conversation.
Establish "listening posts".
Set up specific monitoring alerts (e.g., social listening, news alerts) for the new product name to track its market adoption and sentiment.
Define escalation triggers.
Define specific, measurable events that would trigger a re-evaluation of this strategy (e.g., the product being mentioned as a key factor in 5+ lost deals in a quarter).
4.4 Fast-Follow and Accelerate Roadmap
ⓘ Best for: when a competitor's launch exposes a critical, undeniable gap in your own product, or highlights a significant missed opportunity, immediate and decisive action is required. This option is about rapidly re-prioritizing your product roadmap to fast-follow the competitor, accepting the internal disruption for the sake of long-term competitiveness. | ||
Goal: Rapidly develop and launch a competitive solution to address a critical product gap exposed by the competitor's new offering. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This is the only viable long-term solution when a competitor's launch reveals a true, strategic weakness in your own product. It demonstrates market responsiveness and protects future market share, despite the significant internal disruption it causes. |
Schedule product roadmap meeting.
Hold a session to assess the change in the market. Assess whether this impacts the product roadmap, and document the trade-offs that would be taken for the new project.
Define the "fast-follow" MVP if approved.
If the roadmap meeting concludes that a fast-follow is necessary, the Product team will create a detailed PRD for the MVP required to compete effectively, focusing on speed to market over a complete feature set.
Secure engineering resource commitment for the project.
Following MVP definition, depending on how your product and development team's are structured, formally get buy-in from the development team (engineers, QA, UX) for the fast-follow project and confirm its scope.
Communicate the revised roadmap internally.
Hold an all-hands meeting to clearly communicate the roadmap changes and the strategic rationale to ensure company-wide alignment.
Launch a "stop-gap" defensive campaign.
While the new solution is being built, immediately execute the full checklist from Option 1: Assess and Defend, to protect the current customer base and pipeline.
Develop a "whisper campaign" for key stakeholders.
Create a plan to selectively pre-brief key customers and analysts (under NDA) about the upcoming solution to prevent churn and manage their expectations.